Five former prime ministers and 19 former ministers have found jobs. They have high-paid employment as Commissioners in Jean-Claude Juncker‘s new Commission, announced on 10 September 2014. It is composed of a record-breaking number of politicians — twenty eight. It is 100 percent, wall-to-wall, card-carrying politicians.

Career politicians are happy. They are being paid from public taxes. There is not a normal person, a non-politician, in sight. Candidates from among Europe’s 500 million citizens have been side-lined. Many could fill the role better than politicians: leaders in industry, law, advocacy, human rights, non-governmental organizations, ombudsmen, scientists, engineers. All honest people are eliminated by government leaders. That action is against the clear right of all citizens to be candidates for the job:

The European Commission is political but it should not be party political, controlled by a party clique.The first President of the European Economic Community, Walter Hallstein said:

In principle, we have no [political] competences … because there is nothing of that nature in the Rome Treaty. But we have political responsibility because we are a political – not an economic – enterprise. The Common Market has the goal of unifying Europe politically.

Political parties, whether national or European, do not represent all of Europe. They are at best an important part but they do not encompass all interests of Europe. They cannot really be and be seen to be impartial honest brokers. Parties are partisan, representing a vocal part of the population. The European Commission must address all issues of all citizens. It must also address important matters such as the need to stop party political corruption and the need for governments to obey European law.

Hallstein was previously not a minister but an unelected civil servant in Adenauer’s government. He was chosen as president because, as formerly a professor of law and an ardent defender of democracy, he was better placed than others to lead in the struggle against egocentric politicians such as Charles de Gaulle. De Gaulle wanted to destroy Europe’s last chance for peace in its supranational institutions because he wanted to dominate the Continent for himself.

Hallstein called de Gaulle’s attempts to dismantle the peace progress achieved on the path to a supranational Europe “the greatest act of destruction in the history of Europe, even of the free world, since Hitler” (der größte Zerstörungsakt in der Geschichte Europas, ja der freien Welt, seit den Tagen Hitlers).

Politicians have been trying to create a peace structure in Europe for a thousand years. They all failed until the idea of a supranational Community was initiated. Its principles, however, are often ignored or abused. Politicians, especially later ones, have shown by their incompetence that they do not know how to bring peace, either in Yugoslavia, North Africa, Syria or in many other areas of the world. European politicians meddle ignorantly with the primary mechanism of an impartial Commission at their peril. It endangers all European citizens.

By Treaty Law, the European Commission should have a small, limited number of experienced people who have no further outside ties or interests. They should seek European common interest. Instead the politicians have refused to follow this. They have been trying to foist two major changes on the public:

The upshot of these illegal moves is that politicians have excluded all well-qualified European citizens who could be considered Commissioners.This nepotism of a party clique would be a serious matter of corruption in a town or commune. It is major corruption for the European Union which controls the strings of a 14 trillion euro economy ($18.5 trillion).

Who benefits? The political parties of the three major ‘families’ the ‘European People’s Party’ (George Orwell is spinning in his grave!), Socialists and Liberals. All other parties are excluded except for one. That is the Conservative Party of the United Kingdom. Apparently the British are keen to ‘renegotiate’ except when it comes to ‘jobs for the boys’.

The illegal innovations contradict both the letter and the spirit of the treaties. Why? National representation assumes that the person is not impartial. How should it be done? The most obvious way is to have an impartial jury and let the public nominate those they consider fair-minded and independent Europeans.

It would be more honest if government leaders nominated someone who was not a national of theirs and considered by all Europeans as impartial. Secondly those they nominate are obviously not impartial because they are friends and colleagues of the government leaders — who have many critics. They are also of the same political party. Having card-carrying party members proves they are not chosen according to the Treaty criteria. A party politician is partisan — the very opposite of impartial and independent.

European elections show voter turn-out at an all time low in spite of some countries having compulsory voting. Public opinion is more and more alienated from the European institutions.

The European Commission was set up and seen as the honest broker for diverse European interests. No more. The public has seen politicians fiddle the books on the euro. They have fiddled the statistics. Major countries like France and Germany have refused to follow the judgements of the European Court.

The politicians’ solution? Make the European Council the arbiter of ‘fiddling’! Change the European Commission that took them to Court — which once had no party politicians– to become exclusively the home of retired or unwanted politicians or those coveting an income boost.

What will be the outcome? Firstly more politicians means more political scandals and infighting. Secondly a continued amount of public distrust both of the politicians and unfortunately for the European institutions.

The origin, purpose and future of supranational and European Democracy

About: EURDEMOCRACY

Robert Schuman wrote a book, For Europe, incorporating some of his speeches explaining the principles of a new, more perfect form of democracy that would unite the existing European democracies in a supranational European Community. These comments here draw on that founding philosophy that united Europe's Allies and former enemies in a constructive new entity. Schuman said it would change world politics. It introduced, he said, a new stage in the history of civilization. More information on Schuman and democracy on www.schuman.info Reproduction is permitted freely provided no profit is made in the process, otherwise permission must be obtained. (c) Bron, D Price asserts his moral right to be considered the author. Information: dp@schuman.info
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